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Egypt frees Islamic Jihad activists

Officials say all 130 convicted members of the group signed pledges of non-violence.

04 Jun 2007 15:18 GMT

The Egyptian Islamic Jihad members had been convicted of participating in terrorist acts

Officials said the prisoners were set free on Saturday and Sunday, and had all signed pledges to refrain from violence, although the security sources did not say when that happened.

Al Jazeera's sources expect Cairo to release a new batch of Islamic Jihad group members soon, after its prominent leaders Aboud and Tareq al-Zumor submitted what observers called an apology for violent operations carried out by the group.

Egypt has released hundreds of Jihad members since 2006 in a series of batches, a security source said.

Prior prisoner release

In November 2005, Egyptian authorities also released a group of 150 prisoners on similar conditions, most of them members of a separate Egyptian group, Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya.